"History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States," the Weather Channel's Senior Meteorologist Stu Ostro is warning. "This is an extraordinary situation, and I am not prone to hyperbole."

The National Weather Service has been telling us over the past several days that the serious impact of the super storm which is Hurricane Sandy is not to be underestimated. But there is another concern that has been keeping me awake over the past week or so.

NBC's Al Roker spelled out that concern briefly on Sunday's Meet the Press, explaining what I've been worrying about since it became clear that the storm could have serious ramifications on Election Day.

I'm not talking about the political ramifications about its effect on planned campaign events between now and Election Day, on Early Voting turnout, or even how it's handled by President Obama and FEMA, etc. I'm talking about the serious question of whether voters will be able to vote on Election Day at all, particularly in states which force voters to use electronic voting systems at the precincts.

"We expect massive power outages throughout the area," Roker told NBC's David Gregory (before Gregory hurried to ignore the comment entirely.) "As the system moves on shore it's going to be a long term effect. It's going to last for about 72 hours. And so we're talking about people who could be without power for at least 10 days. That, as you know, will take it right into Election Day. So what will people do if they can't get to the voting booth, or the voting booths don't have power?"

Good question, Al. And one we've warned about here for a number of years.

There are about a half a dozen states (listed below) directly in harm's way where voters are forced to use 100% unverifiable electronic voting systems on Election Day. In those locations, unless they have enough emergency paper ballots printed up to accommodate the entire electorate at precincts where power remains disrupted on Election Day, there could be very serious and unprecedented problems...

While most electronic voting systems have some kind of battery backup system, presuming those batteries are charged and actually working (there are no guarantees of even that), they may still only allow for some 3 or 4 hours of use.

Moreover, many polling locations now use electronic poll books, rather than paper, to sign voters in to vote. In short, this could be more of a disaster in the making than folks realize right now as they, justifiably, worry about far more immediate concerns such as personal safety.

With power outages at the precinct, jurisdictions which use paper ballots and paper poll books will, at least, be able to allow voters to vote, even if those ballots can't be tallied at the precinct on local optical scanners on Election Day. At least those ballots can be tabulated later (presuming the chain of custody remains secure, etc.) either by hand or by centralized (if flawed and manipulatable) optical-scanners. In short, at least people will be able to vote.

But where voters are forced to rely only on electronic touch-screen systems, if power is not restored by November 6th, we could be facing one of the problems that The BRAD BLOG has long warned about as just another reason why it's insane to rely on such systems for voting. Ever.

The states now in immediate harm's way where most voters are forced to vote on electronic touch-screen systems on Election Day across much of the state include:

North Carolina

Virginia

West Virginia

Maryland

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

A number of counties in Ohio, as well as most of Tennessee --- though neither state is quite as directly in the path of the worst of the storm --- also require voters to vote electronically on Election Day.

I hope they all have some serious back-up plans in the works, though at this late date, I suspect, it may be difficult to print up as many paper ballots as would be needed in some of the worst-case scenarios.

I don't usually recommend Early Voting --- by far, the best way to increase the chances of your vote being counted and counted accurately is to cast it, on paper, on Election Day --- but in any of the locations listed above, in jurisdictions where voters are otherwise forced to vote on electronic systems on November 6th, voting early this year, or, better yet, by absentee paper ballot if you're able, might be a very smart idea.

Hilarious if it's Mother Nature(whom we also ignore at our peril)who finally gets the nation to pay appropriate attention to the travesty that is our voting system.

But my cynical guess is that even if Sandy DOES wreak havoc with our voting, as you describe well may happen, there STILL will be enormous resistance to see the simple truth of the need for paper ballots counted by hand. We are a most stubbornly stupid people.

Hope I am wrong.

Maybe we should rely on Nate Silver to poll the hurricane and see what our chances of voting will be.

He doesn't seem to believe in the possibility of election fraud but maybe he believes in weather.

Whoever is declared the winner of next Tuesday's whatever there will be no way to know whether it's real or not. And friends and foe alike will by and large not give a fuck about that. Why are we trying to get their attention when they don't want to give it?

So, Brad, you are suggesting no attempt to allow voting after Nov 6 if the power is out that day OR no successful attempt to allow it, as in a SCOTUS ruling approximating "if acts of God prevent voting then who are we to argue" from the Nazi/Catholic cadre?

With the current prediction at www.electoral-vote.com/
and assuming 1) no votes in 2012 from NC, VA, WV, MD, PA and NJ, the electoral vote is Obama 236 Rmoney 215.

This does not include 10 unassigned electoral votes currently rated as "ties," Iowa (6) and Vermont (4). Ohio's 18 votes are now assigned to Obama based on a 49%-46% edge in eight polls of Oct 28.

Oh, Brad, don't be silly. There will be emergency power at the election sites so that the die-hard religious right can come out and vote. There just won't be any power in people's homes or the TV studios or other places so that anybody could MONITOR the vote.

This will just make it even EASIER for them to steal the votes in those states.

And remember, as the suppression activities have shown, the Rethuglicans LIKE it when there are fewer people voting, especially when those people not voting are the ones who would vote against them.

It looks like a freak storm brought on by global climate change will bring into office a climate change denier who can drive us to ultimate destruction. Talk about irony.

All I can say to those in the northern states who are fighting to keep their homes and lives against the forces of nature is: remember, there are other forces at work. Go out and vote like your life depended on it--because it does!

AFACIT It doesn't require SCOTUS intervention:
"Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct. "
USC Title 3, Section 2.

That said, after 2000, SCOTUS involvement is likely to happen in an unpleasant fashion.

We use e-voting here in Maryland and I expect that one way or another these machines will be "adjusted." However this will not be done by the Republicans here. This area in the western part of the state will go Republican, but both parties will suppress Green votes here.

The threads that WERE Hot and Heavy were the "Romney Continues to Lie about Jeep" and "Early Voting in Virginia EFFECTED". I cant help but think how the GOP must love all this. Afterall, the fewer people VOTING, the better for them.

THINK PROGRESS AND ALTERNET CAN KISS MY ASS!
I WILL NEVER FORGET 2000 AND 04!
(how soon they forget!) They are on my SHITLIST.

Where is Pat Robertson when we need him to explain why this is happening? Could it be because NY allows gay marriage and only Christ Christie prevents it in Jersey? Remember Hurricane Isaac targeted the Republican Convention in Tampa. Maybe God is as sick of this political season as I am!!!!

here in North Carolina, over 75% of the state has paper ballots that go through an opti-scanner. If there is no electricity, then voters can deposit in a locked box part of the scanner and the poll workers with put through the scanner later. This will be done in the precinct.

But power outages are limited in NC.

There are a few parts of the state with electronic voting and paper trails of all votes. I am sure they have battery backup.

Imagine if we went back to paper ballots, to be publicly bundled and ceremoniously delivered than publicly tabulated at inspected, secure centralized locations. With publicly displayed change of custody sub-ceremonies and documentation.

There is a reason ceremony exists in human cultures; at times it is to ensure uniformity and transparency.

Instead, we've simply privatized the whole thing from voting to final result announcement. There isn't even a rationale given as to why the current process should be trustworthy.

I find it VERY strange that the storm followed a path that very much affects the areas likely to go heavily for Obama. Excuse me for "HAARPING" on this but those sites were showing VERY strange and unprecedented spikes in the ionosphere. The conspiracists are saying this was engineered to help Obama (I presume they mean POTUS could somehow CANCEL the election due to a disaster), but clearly that would be vastly incorrect. Is it possible HAARP could have been used without the government's knowledge?